So what did you learn the HARD way...

[irnsrgn]

Why Pipe Welders wear soft billed caps and have the bill pulled down over the ear when welding pipe.

[easilyconfused]

If somebody gets you to go in and move a stubborn cow, it's because they've just about gotten kicked.

[HWooldridge]

Don't plug in the stereo barefooted while standing on concrete. A related lesson is don't grab a live welding stinger with your bare left hand while leaning on an anvil with your bare right hand.

[ThomasPowers]

Just because it's not glowing doesn't mean the steel is cold! I was a fast learner on that one!

ALWAYS TIE DOWN the load in the pickup---one of the funnier "learning experiences" was when our town was chipping up christmas trees and instead of leaving them by the trashcans you had to take them to a city park. Well I was taking my tree and noticed that most of my neighbors hadn't heard of the change in location so I loaded 4 or 5 more trees in my little pickup and started off on the back roads about 1.5 miles to the park. Coming down a big hill on a bridge---bad combination in the winter. I hit a bump and my old truck bounced a bit and I looked in my side mirror and I had tossed a tree off about every 20' as the truck's suspension cycled....

[JIMBO420]

Always check a grinding wheel to make sure the correct size wheel is on a hand held grinder.
To big of a wheel=too many rpm's=shattered disc=7 stiches on my hand

[jayco]

One cold morning I went to my shop in coveralls.....zipped all the way up.

As the morning progressed the shop got warmer.....and so did I.

So, I unzipped the coveralls , but kept them on, since I didn't have a jacket handy.

BAD MISTAKE!

A very small, but very Hot piece of the iron I'd been forging went flying right in that open zipper!

I never was much of a dancer, but I made an exception that day.

I later found a piece of slag kinda melted into the top of my boot.

I wasn't injured, but I learned something.........

I never knew I could move that fast!!

James

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

If, your gonna put something in the bed of your truck, always account for the TRUE weight being 50% more that the ESTIMATED weight the seller gives you.

If it looks like a bad idea....it probably is!

-Aaron @ the SCF

[primtechsmith]

Thomas-
Good point. I have been told since I was a kid to tie everything down as if you were being followed too close by a state trooper carrying a car full of pregnant nuns...it helps to be cautious. And it is a great visual.

Peyton

[irnsrgn]

if man was meant to fly, he would have been given wings. after flying, landing is a big problem.

When two people are using pinch bars to lever a large load up a ways and you are both on the end of your long handles and one slips out when it almost high enough to block, being airborne has nothing to do with being in the army.

[Glenn]

Sheet glass, sheet metal, and hot iron are called *Moose ears*.

*Moose ears*:
if it falls, the proper place for your hands are with your thumbs in the your ears and the fingers fully extended.

[jayco]

NEVER believe anyone who says "Go ahead and eat that......it's still good."

[Marc]

Don't leave hot work on the anvil, or any other benign place, while you go answer the phone. You might jab your thigh with the anvil horn, curse a little, then lean on the hot piece, thinking it's still a cold anvil, or other cold benign place, and then curse a lot

Seriously, though, never leave hot work unattended anywhere but a place always used for hot stuff. I've got a couple firebricks on the floor in an out-of-the-way place that everyone knows could have hot things on it.



And on a completely unrelated note - The Ubehebe Crater, in Death Valley, is a whole lot steeper going back up than it is going down.

[Ted T]

What I have learned The Hard Way?
I learned that I should not just trust what any, and everybody says.
I have learned that I have to be responsible for any information that I use.
Most everything of a technical nature that I have learned through out my life time was taught to me by someone else. The methods used were via books, class rooms, or individuals coaching me in some forum or fashion.
The things I have learned on my own (through trial and error experience) sometime had a lot of pain or an un-necessary expense attached to it.
I say the above to say this;
I have learned it is very important to find out if the information being given to you is factually sound, or if it is just someone’s un-proven opinion being given to you as though it is factual! I am a prime example of what I say the problem is. I used to trust everybody!
I believe it is up to each one of us to make sure that what is taught to you is accurate information. That takes study (research) time and effort, but it is also wisdom.
It seems like mostly young people (as bright as they are) are in such a rush to get to the goal post, that they become vulnerable to hearsay or someone’s un-proven opinion.
I believe each one of us must take the time and effort to confirm that the opinion of someone else is a safe and a correct evaluation of what is being said.

I would rather be hated for who I am, than be loved for who I am not!
Please be safe!
Old Rusty Ted

[mark hendricks]

What did I learn the hard way? Everything.

[yesteryearforge]

AMEN TED
Mike Tanner

[gerald]

What did I learn the hard way? That a length of pipe that has been torch cut will shrink as it cools (I knew that). If you cut the saddles so that they are tight against the pipes that they fit between, they should hold the horizontal pipe long enough for you to get the ends welded (I knew that). If you have them tight enough so that you have to use a good sized hammer to get them level, they are tight enough (I knew that). If you hammer one in position late in the afternoon (but don't weld it) and then come back the next morning, it turns into a guillotine that can get you a new thumbnail (I didn't know that, but now I do).

[habu68]

Almost everything I know......

And never leave a 32 oz framing axe on the top of a 10' step ladder.

[keykeeper]

1. Never climb up on top of anything you can't handle falling off of.

2. Never hold a pencil flame torch (lit) in one hand, then twist your body and reach with the other hand while sitting. The twist/pivot/burn leg/drop stuff/howl loudly sequence is not pretty.

3. Never assume that the older male (dad) standing behind you has a good hold on the 20 guage poke-stock shotgun you are about to fire for the first time in your life as you pull the trigger. That was at age 7, scars on right cheek from hammer ripping skin still visible 28 years later.

[easilyconfused]

Not so much as learned the hard way as sage construction advice but "Never put your finger where you wouldn't put your....ahem"

[Dodge]

NEVER pull a trailer without safety chains. Even if it means you have to use a different vehicle because yours doesn't have anywhere to attach the chains. Even a short distance. Even if you believe with all your heart that you can get away with it "just this once". Because, when the hasp breaks and you have a fairly well balance load, the tongue won't hit the ground right away so you know somethings wrong. It will wait till you start to slow down and then the trailer will pass you and narrowly miss three cars parked in the street as you watch it roll in and out of two driveways and you KNOW that all of your wife's underwear is going to end up all over the neighborhood, but it then finally, and miraculously, I might add, parks itself in the last driveway before the busy intersection (the light was green. it could have kept going). Then after you get help to drag the trailer home to fix the hasp, you go in an change you pants.

[Joe H]

NEVER try to carry/drag a baboon from it's cage to a dog box in a truck, ESPECIALLY if the owner offers you $500 for the task.

...Long, painful story

[easilyconfused]

Similar to never help a vet that walks in carrying cat gloves and a muzzle and everyone else is suddenly busy.

[Ecart]

ALWAYS unplug your angle grinder when changing sanding disks, regardless of whether you are the only one in the shop. It slipped, and the switch caught the edge of my work bench. A suddenly spinning 50 grit disk cut straight through my long-sleeved shirt and into my arm. That one smarted for a while.

[Ten Hammers]

10-4 on the safety chains. A broken hitch ( with safety chains ) will then violently shake the pickup as the trailer is freely steering at highway speed. Chains finally break. Tounge embeds into shoulder ( after some narrow misses at highway speed ) and the ditch witch is still attached to the trailer thankfully. Trailer finally stops after all energy is expended. You think a forge weld heat happens fairly fast but this trailer episode happened in couple blinks of an eye. State Trooper ( a friend thankfully ) stops within couple minutes and asks if I can recover the trailer ok and I answer yes. Just because it is old and looks tough, it can break. Result was purchase of a $ 3500.- Ditch Witch and thankfully no deaths/injuries or other property damage. BTW as Thomas stated ( and I'll add a bit ) always use grade 5 or better tiedown chains and turnbuckles to secure a load. Firearms are ALWAYS loaded unless you have ( and are qualified ) checked for empty ( including front loaders ). Accidents are sometimes just that but sometimes a result of carelessness. Always think on the side of caution. Many times we will never know if a person died being educated ( at the last moment ) but sometimes we will know. Lack of judgement can happen to extremely intelligent folks. Never disable safety switches unless you are willing to pay the price ( yes I know about this too.)

[SLOB]

I learned that even though I love my dad.....I dont trust him with a muzzleloader.

he has a bad habit of not unloading a muzzleloader after an unsuccessful day of deer hunting.......who knows how long it sat loaded, but it was long enough for him to forget and load it again!

I had an idea of what he had done so I unloaded it with a cap, fired from the hip. it was a bad idea that could have been worse. the nipple and hammer shot off (at an extreme velocity) and missed my face by fractions of an inch. my ears rang for weeks and the flames left slight burns on my cheek after removing key portions of my beard.

I still get a sick feeling everytime I hear he's going out with a muzzle loader. (its a different one.....mine that he was using that day ended up in SEVERAL smaller pieces after that incident) I'm waiting for him to do it again and get worse results out in the woods all alone.